The original source of the Covid-19 virus was one of the important unanswered questions that was summarized in a Nature article summarized in an earlier blog.
https://anydaynow.blog/waiting-for-answers-to-key-questions/
The conclusion was that it had likely originated from a bat, as did SARS, and was transmitted to another animal before jumping to a human. Despite many investigations, the intermediate species has not been identified. The following article provides more details, a story of scientific detective work.
https://time.com/5870481/coronavirus-origins
There was another claim made repeatedly by Donald Trump that the virus had come from a Chinese lab and that China was responsible for leashing the pandemic on the world. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated on numerous occasions that they had intelligence reports to back this up. Neither of them ever gave any details of these reports and they eventually backed off from this claim.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/03/mike-pompeo-donald-trump-coronavirus-chinese-laboratory
There is no evidence that the virus was manmade. A director at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a highly respected virologist, checked the inventory of all virus samples in the lab and determined that none were close to Covid-19 when the virus was first discovered in Wuhan and that everyone in the lab tested negative for Covid-19.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/trump-owes-us-apology-chinese-scientist-center-covid-19-origin-theories-speaks-out?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=42390640f2-briefing-dy-20200727&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-42390640f2-45132230
An important question besides where has the virus has come from is where is the virus going?
The Time article has a very interesting section on how molecular biologists are able to determine the genetic sequence of viruses. There have been many mutations since the first case of Covid-19 was identified and they have been put into an international database. The particular strain of the virus has been used to identify virus outbreaks that have occurred in different countries in the world. This chart is a stunning visual and information display of this information.
There is some thought that Covid-19 mutations have become less virulent. In Europe people are less likely to die if they get Covid-19 now compared with earlier in the pandemic. There is one mutation D614G that has become more predominant than others, but there is no confirmation that this or any other variant has actually become more dangerous.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/opinion/coronavirus-mutation-reinfection.html
